DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Through two races, the new-look BMW Grand Touring Prototype program is banking on its offseason changes and aggressive moves to close the gap to Porsche up front in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
BMW switched its partner team alliance after 2025, moving on from the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing outfit after 17 years to consolidate its top-level effort with BMW M Team WRT. The Belgian WRT organization has taken over as BMW M Motorsport’s GTP partner team in IMSA, including establishing a North Carolina U.S. base. This change creates greater consistency throughout BMW’s IMSA and FIA World Endurance Championship programs.
The changes were more than just the team itself. The BMW M Hybrid V8 received an “Evo” upgrade, with aerodynamic and brake system modifications intended to create more stable and predictable handling across all conditions. A new-look, smaller kidney grille also stands out.
All parties involved have expressed confidence in the new arrangement. While the upgraded BMW M Hybrid V8 has not showed the one-lap pace it demonstrated early in the 2025 season, the Evo updates seemed to work as hoped for at the Rolex 24 At Daytona and the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.
Andreas Roos had a long history with Audi before he took over as head of BMW M Motorsport in mid-2022, when the BMW M Hybrid V8 was in the final stages of development. He has presided over the changes to the IMSA program this year and believes the early signs are promising.
“So far, so good…we can’t complain,” Roos said prior to Sebring. “Running a car to a podium at Daytona was quite promising, for sure. We still had some work to do, but for the race, we got the car in a good window, and the car was there to fight for a top position. Ending on the podium was for sure a nice start to the season together with WRT as our new team. So quite happy there. Daytona was definitely positive, for us a good step. Were we quick enough to fight for the win? I would say no, the Porsche was ahead a bit and had an edge on us, but ending up on the podium at the 24 Hours of Daytona is always good.
“Since then, we’ve done some tests and will continue testing to find some more steps,” he added. “Let’s see where we are here.”
Roos said BMW is already seeing the fruits of consolidating its two worldwide sports car programs, with a common partner team and parallel driver lineups.
“After the first years we did, we clearly said a big point is creating the most synergies we can create between teams and drivers,” he remarked. “Our first step was to have drivers doing both championships. You also have a lot of engineers on the BMW side and on the team side that do both championships, but when you have a driver, he brings his input directly from one championship to the other, which helped us. This is also why we made the move we did this year for 2026 to move everything to WRT.
“For sure, they are two different teams, let’s say – there is an IMSA team and a WEC team – but we have some core people who do both championships, and this helps us to accelerate the whole program. This helps us integrate with WRT and with the Evo, we hope we’ve made some good steps there.”
The lineups remain the same in IMSA for 2026 as they were in 2025, just flipped between the two cars. Sheldon van der Linde shifted from the No. 25 BMW entry to the No. 24 car alongside Dries Vanthoor, who opened 2025 on a hot streak with four consecutive Motul Pole Awards. Philipp Eng went the other way, moving from the No. 24 car to the No. 25 car alongside Marco Wittmann. Although both are settling into slightly revised IMSA programs, they’re both positive about their 2026 start.
“I think it’s going very well so far,” said van der Linde. “Obviously, we have a brand-new team with WRT, and I think their expectations have been realistic. I don’t think we can expect to come in here and dominate with so many strong competitors that have been here for three years already, like Porsche for example. We are realistic, for sure.”
Eng echoed, “Overall it’s very positive. There’s no doubt WRT are one of the best teams in the world, so I am very happy to be racing for them. One of the big assets of WRT is they always have a big talent of bringing the right people to the right positions. I think that is exactly what has happened now. I think we have a very good team together. The preparation time is quite short, but if one team can manage to do it, it’s them.”
To start the year, Vanthoor and van der Linde, now teamed together in the No. 24, claimed third place at Daytona and fifth at Sebring with IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup driver Robin Frijns, to rank an early fourth in the standings. The No. 25 car piloted this year by Eng and Wittmann with Kevin Magnussen for Michelin Endurance Cup races, had a tougher run so far this year but has shown flashes of speed.
While the drivers and engineers were puzzled by their inability to extract qualifying speed from the BMW M Hybrid V8 in Evo trim at Daytona and Sebring, there’s no question that the goals of improved drivability and consistency have been met.
“It’s obviously better at following and raceability,” van der Linde said. “That’s what it’s aimed at. In the high speed, you can definitely follow a bit closer, so that’s definitely a positive. We’re still working on getting in the right window for the car. I think it’s no secret we haven’t found the sweet spot yet, but I think it’s getting there. We need a few more test days and races to really find out what works and what doesn’t. But we were surprised how well the race started at Daytona can feel the effects of the new aero kit already.”
The BMW M Hybrid V8 was most effective on fast, flowing circuits like Road America and Watkins Glen International, and it also scored a 1-2 finish on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s road course in 2024. Which track are Roos and BMW looking forward to the most as they attempt to overcome Porsche’s recent run in GTP?
“All of them!” he exclaimed. “I think when you look back over the last season, there were several tracks where we always had a good and competitive car and were able to fight for good results. It was always quite positive. This I hope can continue, and we can also get some more victories this year.
“But we also did some mistakes, not finishing a race through an accident or whatever,” Roos added. “This for sure we have to get sorted. But on pure performance, there are not tracks which are not suiting us.”